Research news: Herb no bar to dementia

The News:
Herb no bar to dementia
Thousands were involved in a six-year study of ginkgo biloba.
By Karen KaplanLos Angeles Times
Updated: 11/18/2008 08:04:04 PM MST
Long touted as an elixir of eternal mental acuity, the herbal extract ginkgo biloba does not prevent or delay the progression of dementia or Alz heimer's disease, according to a clinical trial reported Tuesday involving thousands of volunteers between the ages of 75 and 96.
The subjects swallowed round, reddish tablets twice a day for an average of more than six years, but at the end of the study, those who received ginkgo biloba were slightly more likely to be diagnosed with dementia and Alz heim er's than their counterparts who received dummy pills.
The results, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, are sure to disappoint the millions of people who take ginkgo in the hopes of boosting their brain power and staving off the ravages of dementia and Alzheimer's, which affect more than 5.2 million Americans. Alzheimer's passed diabetes two years ago as the sixth-leading cause of death in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"No one is more disappointed that we didn't have any traction in slowing down the disease than the group that did the study," said Dr. Steven T. DeKosky, the neurologist who led the clinical trial.
Mark Blumenthal, executive director of the American Botanical Council, a nonprofit group backed by herbal supplement makers, said the study used the right dose of the right ginkgo extract and gave the pills a reasonable amount of time to show an effect. The fact that it did not help puts ginkgo in good company, he said.
"Let's keep in mind that to date, no conventional pharmaceutical drug has shown any benefit for either preventing the onset of Alzheimer's or dementia, or even slowing it down," he said.
The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a branch of the National Institutes of Health, began researching ginkgo in 1999 as part of a broad effort to subject unregulated herbal remedies to the same type of scrutiny that is required of medicines seeking approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Read on...

The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the Journal of the American Medical Association.